Reading Library

Our brand-new reading library is your guide to interesting information on special education that we’ve found on the web. You can find it right here. Got a submission? Please let us know!

Local resources

• A Parent’s Guide to Special Education in Brookline [PDF]

Thanks to a generous grant from the Brookline Education Foundation, the Brookline SEPAC produced this handbook to help guide parents through the sometimes confusing special education system.

No single handbook can, of course, cover all situations and answer all questions, but it is our sincere hope that this handbook will get you started. Throughout the book we also refer you to additional resources where you can turn for further help if you need it.

We plan to update this handbook to reflect recent changes, and we will keep current the version on the website. All updates will be located here.

• Brookline High School Special Education Department Organizational Chart (2005-06 school year) [PDF document with small type (zoom in to read)]
• Brookline High School special education program overview (2003-04 school year)
• Notes on “Supporting Children with Weak Executive Functioning Skills,” a lecture given by Ann Helmus, Ph.D., pediatric neurophysicist, at the Children’s Evaluation Center in Newton on November 3, 2004, in a presentation sponsored by the Brookline SEPAC and Brookline Public Schools. (Notes taken by a Brookline SEPAC member.)
• Janis Krempa spoke in December, 2005 at an event sponsored by Brookline SEPAC. We have handouts from that event, including Ms. Krempa’s notes from her talk, and a template for a Functional Behavior Assessment Summary and Behavior Intervention Plan that she provided.
• Notes from Dan Ahearn’s Basic Rights workshop sponsored by Brookline SEPAC on Wednesday, February 1, 2006. These notes were prepared by Ahearn and handed out at the workshop. [PDF]
• The presentations from our April, 2006 event on executive function skills are available here. Included are Jim Henry’s and Holly Irvin’s presentation on executive function skills, as well as Elizabeth Blevins’ presentation on the EmPOWER approach for teaching writing.
• Sarah Ward has given two fabulous presentations on the importance of executive functioning skills and how we can best help our kids and students succeed. If you couldn’t make either of the presentations, or if you came but didn’t pick up one of her handouts, we’ve got them right here:
  
  • Powerpoint presentation (March 2007)
  • Cheat sheet (overview of strategies) (March 2007)
  • Homework planner sample (March 2007)
  • Powerpoint presentation “Getting It Done” (April 2008)

  You also can visit her website at http://executivefunctiontherapy.com, where she’s posted additional materials.

• Notes from Dan Ahearn’s Basic Rights workshop sponsored by Brookline SEPAC on Wednesday, October 25, 2006. These notes were prepared by Ahearn and handed out at the workshop. [PDF]
• Brookline SEPAC’s 2005-06 year-end report, presented to the School Committee on December 14, 2006.
• Baker School Guide to Effective Communication: Practical Advice for Families and Teachers [PDF] is available at the Baker School website.
• The Elementary School Task Force 2004-05 report on inclusion is available here [PDF].
• CFACT stands for Challenge For All Children Today. We support the mission of Brookline schools to “enable all children to reach their full potential.” Our members, a group of over 200 families representing all Brookline K-8 schools, are working to help realize this goal. We want all children to benefit from academic challenges suitable for their skill level. We hope to prevent the problems associated with teaching children what they already know.

Relevant laws

• IDEA 2004: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, also known as IDEA 2004, is the federal law governing most aspects of special education. This latest version of federal special education law was enacted in 2004. A copy of the statute as signed by the President is located here. The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates has prepared a version showing the changes from IDEA 97 and Wrightslaw has prepared a similar version with commentary. Wrightlaw has published a book containing the relevant portions of the law and commentary which you can purchase at Amazon.com. The federal Department of Education’s regulations implementing IDEA 2004 are also available (in text and PDF formats).
• Information about Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and relevant state laws and regulations will be provided shortly…

External resources